Hey everyone,

I'm trying to gauge interest in the community for a homebrew full Psionics class now that Wizards has officially pulled the plug on the Mystic. I've actually been working on this for quite some time, and in fact have 2 full classes almost complete. The first full class is a Psion full caster class with 6 subclasses (Disciplines) and the second is a Psychic Warrior half caster class with 3 subclasses (Mystic Orders). The classes and subclass features are done, its just the final spell lists I'm still playing around with now. I was actually planning to commission some artwork and put it all together in a nice package up on the DM's Guild. I could also certainly use some more feedback if people want to volunteer to do some playtesting for me. So just overall, what do you all think is the real interest in full psionics classes and would a few of you be interested in an advanced preview of the material in exchange for some playtesting and feedback?

Thanks!

I'll be looking for it. I am hoping DDB will add homebrewed classes in the near future so we can add things like this. WotC seems to have a very real phobia about new classes.

I'm 100% indifferent. The Mystic didn't have a place, and I was happy with the subclass approach before the April UA.

I was very happy with the aberrant mind, psionicist, and psychic warrior. The new psionic sorcerer is still good, but the wizard subclass really drew it together for me. The psi dice is also good in theory, but I suspect players may end up being too cautious with their psi features knowing that the tail risk includes losing your psionic powers for the day.

Honestly the only mechanic I'd like to see uniquely for psionics is the old psionic focus mechanic from 3.5e and the earlier Mystic. The psionic focus mechanic created persistent minor magical enhancements that could be lost or expended, akin to concentration. Disciplines can stay in the dustbin.

psionics can be a sorcerer subclass that uses spell points and replaces charisma with int as the casting stat.  laserllama has an amazing example with his alternate sorcerer on the unearthed arcana reddit

I’m interested as long as it doesn’t cast any spells. 

Psionics=/=Spellcasting

I assume you've read some other the threads about what people want to see. There are some very strong opinions surrounding psionics, so don't expect to please everyone. There's also been a good bit of resistance against the "homebrew your own" suggestion. Sometimes it seems it's more important for WotC to do what they want then to actually play the class.

But drama aside, I'm always down for some good homebrew. I would just say if you're into it, you should be making it for yourself and your games and don't worry about level of interest on some forum. It's nice to have your stuff used, but looking for interest and/or approval from others on the internet can sometimes sour an otherwise enjoyable project.

Mystic is done but the devs are developing psionic subclasses for each class now instead, largely because there is so much people want from psionics that a single class can't handle it all.

Hey guys,

Really appreciate the responses and input so far, and the advice as well. I'm certainly familiar with the various approaches for psionics that have been tried to date and some of the long standing differences of opinion that have become points of contention as to how psionics should be implemented, the psionics/magic relationship probably foremost among them. Here's how I decided to resolve that issue in my design and my reasoning.

The psion base class and subclasses I put together each receive unique psychic talents which can be used on their own, but which can also be augmented by spending spell slots. The end result is a psion which is a full arcane caster class, with an array of available spells geared mostly toward buffing and debuffing, but which treats their spell slots more as an expendable resource that can be used to empower their natural psychic abilities. I think Mike Mearls had also discussed this idea in a design video quite a while back. Here's why I chose to go this way and why it made sense to me both thematically and as a practical matter of game design:

1) I played around a lot with creating an entirely separate psionics system that was point based. It became obvious very quickly that so much of what we want a psion to be able to do already exists in game, and creating a separate system left me trying to recreate the wheel and resulted in all manner of issues with how the two systems would work together. On a sheer game design level, I decided the redundancy of abilities and resulting stacking issues just wasn't worth it. So I chose to work with the existing spell slot system which I then found to be a much smoother and streamlined experience.

2) Thematically, it made a lot of sense to me as well. As I see them, psions have learned to unlock the potential of their minds and developed extraordinary psychic gifts. But their inner reserves of personal power, while potent, are nowhere near the energy of the arcane weave that pervades the world around them. And we see this time and time again in works of fiction and lore where powerful psychics must still learn to draw upon the power of the world around them to perform their greatest feats of psychic ability. And once I started looking at spell slots as an expendable resource rather than simply as spells, this became a very effective metaphor, in my mind at least, for a psychic tapping into the energy of the world around them to empower their individual psychic abilities.

3) Once I settled on this approach, designing the psion as a full caster class that treated spell slots as an expendable resource to augment their psychic abilities, this gave me a very fluid way to scale the psion's psychic abilities as they leveled and also made for some interesting gameplay and player decisions in regards to how they managed and used their resources. I still have some balance concerns which is why I'm soliciting input and playtesters, but overall I found myself quite happy with the class's unique flavor and the way it's been interacting with the existing system and classes in my home campaign.

I know many people won't be happy with this approach. That's totally cool, I've got a thick skin. For those who want to create a totally separate system, more power to you. I genuinely look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Every psionic class in past editions has been psi point based. The DMG has an option rule for using power points, which is perfect for psionics (even if DDB doesn't support PP yet).

I'd stay away from any Psionc system that uses spell slots instead of psi points.